Randy Pausch Has Died

Earlier this summer I read the book "The Last Lecture". I'd seen the author briefly on a talk show segment. I hadn't even caught the whole segment. I did understand that Randy had terminal cancer and his last lecture was a phenomena. I promptly forgot to look it up on the internet. Then I was at the library a couple of weeks ago and there was the book.

My mind said, "Hey Cathy, that's that guy you saw on TV. This book's been on the best sellers list for awhile, might as well pick up the book." So pick it up I did.

Wow. In the last several years I'm trying to become more at peace with my mortality. I've read books like "For One More Day", "Weekends with Morie" and "The Seven People You Will Meet In Heaven" along with some Bible readings. I know you really don't get a choice to leave, when to leave, or how to leave. I think we all hope we will be over a hundred years old and die in our sleep. Even then how many of us will be ready to go?

In Tuesdays with Morie and the Last Lecture, the subject knows that he is dying. In each case he has time to say good bye and set things right for the loved ones he leaves behind. In each case the person has time to come to grips with the changes and morn their fate. They chose instead to celebrate their now.

Randy kept a blog for people who were following his story. I viewed it a few times since I read his book. I discussed the book with my principal who had also read the book and was touched by its message. I come away even more convinced that I should celebrate my inner tigger and that everyone should have a crayon. (It doesn't make sense unless you read the book).

In each day and in every moment there is something to celebrate and something to be grateful for. Sometimes it is hard to get past the difficulty that faces us but the joy is there if we chose to see it. Right now I'm camping in our old house. We've been broken into (this is like the second time and this time they stole the air conditioner for the copper). We had to cancel our trip to Niagra Falls and to Branson but both places will be there to be seen another time.

I can be angry and upset, which I was or I can say that this is the challenge that I need to face and I will face it with an open heart. Good will come out of this. I can't say what good or when it will come but in due time this to shall pass and in face of the challenges that others face it is insignificant.

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. I need to learn how to play to win rather than continue playing in a manner so that I don't lose. Trust me there is a difference.

I Have Two Masters Degrees

NOT!

I work with a woman who generally finds some way to insert this statement into almost any conversation. For example, a few of the English teachers were thinking about starting the book club back up and this woman and I both showed up at the meeting. We each mentioned what we were reading. Well this Mrs. TWO MASTER's had mentioned what book she'd been reading and one of the other teachers said she just couldn't get into that book herself. She admitted that she had started to read it but with a small baby at home if a book couldn't draw her in she just put it aside.

I mentioned that I had just finished "Of Mice and Men" and that just before that I had read The Audacity of Hope." I confessed I was going back and checking out classics that I had never read I was really enjoying them far more than I thought I would. Well since the English Department requires of Mice and Men they gushed over the book and I confessed that one of the reasons I had chosen that particular book was because it was required. I will always comment when I see a student with a book, "Are you reading that for a class or did you pick it out because you were interested?" I will ask what they thought and what was going on in the book so far. If they admit that they aren't reading it I will tell them what I thought of the book when I read it.

Well this just tickled the English Department's fancy. They LOVED that. Their summer reading selections had been filled with books I had loved like "90 Minutes in Heaven" and "Tuesdays with Maurie" The kids had actually enjoyed these books more than I would have imagined. I had actually had some interesting conversations with the kids about the books.

I thought the meeting went well but with fixing up the house I didn't know if I would have the time to dedicate to the club. As we were leaving Mrs. TWO MASTERS caught up with me. She was pretty upset but not trying to show it. "I just can't believe that so and so didn't give the book more of a chance. Then again it seemed like many of the books that were thrown out there were pretty pedestrian. I have noticed that I often pick out books with a bit more substance but then I have two masters degrees.

Now I work in the same department as she does so I can't always avoid her. I've learned to just accept that she'll sneak her two degrees into almost any conversation but it's still annoying. I think it's a self-esteem issue.
Anyway, the other day one of our co-workers had to leave a few minutes early to go to the dentist. I think the exact words were "a couple of minutes early". Hey I understand. If I had a seventh period planning period I would have covered her class so she could go She wanted to avoid having to take sick leave time so what is the big deal in watching a class period that is almost over for someone who works in your department. This is not a person who does this all the time or for that matter asks people for much of anything.

Well the teacher who needed to leave asked the department secretary if she woud watch the class. The department secretary said yes but then discovered she had to leave early because her son was sick. She asked my pal two masters who agreed to sit with the class for a "couple of minutes". As she related the story to me, she had planned to go down during the afternoon announcements to cover the class. That would be essentially a couple or literally two minutes. Yet her phone rang with eight minutes to go and she told me she knew that this was the call to say come down and watch my class.

OK for me eight minutes, two minutes, it's not an all day thing. I'd have probably gone there ten minutes before the end of class anyway. That's just me. Well Two Masters was infuriated. After all she has two masters and her time is valuable. She told me she just ignored the call. Then the teacher had to send a student down to her to say "Mrs. So and So wants to know if you are coming." Keep in mind this is just a kid. Mrs. Two Masters says to the kid "Well I'm turning off all the computers in my room and when I'm finished I will come down there. You can tell her I will be down for the last two minutes like she originally asked."

Now her last class could have turned off all the computers. She could have come back and turned them off after watching the class. I asked her if she had some place she had to rush to after school and she told me no. "No it's just the principle of the thing. Two minutes is two minutes. I have two master's degrees and my time is pretty valuable. In a real workplace people would respect time but then I find most teachers have no real concept of time. I doubt many of them could handle the corporate world. I am certain most of them couldn't have handled the rigors of a MBA. I reminded her that this particular teacher had actually run her own restaurant for ten years. She didn't acknowledged that. The point was that two minutes are two minutes and eight minutes is six minutes longer.
I find her attitude to be pretty selfish. Maybe that's just me. What do you think? Am I really that clueless? Do you think getting two masters would make me a more self-actualized person? Am I really missing the point because for me six minutes goes towards goodwill to others and not anything more.

Thanks for letting me vent because this person is making me crazy. Trust me I try to avoid her but it's not always possible

Saving with CVS ECBs

I've done better but I needed soda. No scratch that I am addicted to soda. Not as bad as I once was when I drank nothing but caffeinated soda but still I start to get the DT's without it. First I but Four Diet Cokes at $3.25 a 12 pack. Ugh I hate that. Except it says normally I would pay $5.49 a 12 pack (as if) Yet it's also not bad if you consider that I received a $3 ECB for buying four twelve backs. That means I get back .75 for each of the twelve packs bringing the price down to $2.50 more reasonable. Thank goodness.

Then I bought a Gillete Fusion Shaver. Darryl loves those. They were on sale for $9.99. If you think that's bad check out the refill price. It's cheaper for us to buy the razor on sale with coupons and ecbs. The coupon in question was for $2.00. Let's see subtract that from $9.99 and get $7.99. Still not done with this because I received $5.00 in ecbs making the razor only $2.99. Darryl, Michael, and Dan say this is their favorite razor and they all insist it is the best they have ever used.

You can never have enough deodorant so I bought some heavy duty lady speed stick for $6.99. Normally $7.99 because it is "Clinical Strength" I had a coupon for $2.00 bringing it down to $4.99. You know it I received $2.00 in ecbs making it $2.99. About half price.

The best deal of the day was some cover girl make up. It was buy one get one free. I also had a coupon for a FREE Cover Girl foundation when you buy one. That's two cover girl foundations free. Normally each one is $5.49. Making it an even better deal I received an ECB for $5.49 meaning they paid me to walk out with the makeup.

Colgate toothpaste was on sale 2 for $5.00. I don't know when the last time I paid full price for toothpaste. I had a coupon for $1.50 off two. This brought the price down to 2 for $3.50 or $1.75 each. Out came my new ecb for $2 off. Bringing the price down to 2 tubes of Colgate for $1.50 or 75 cents a tube.

Gillette now makes men's hair care products like shampoo and conditioner. Sort of that manly man thing going on. Anyway, they were on sale two for $9. I had a coupon for 75 cents off each one. Making it two for $7.50. The $2 ecb made them 2 for $5.50 or about $2.75 each.

When paying my bill I used $16 worth of ecb's I had received from previous purchases bringing the amount I owed to $22.47 oop. Another way of looking at it would be that I paid about $1.87 per item out of pocket. That's because I bought 12 items. There are people who do coupons better but I don't think this is a bad haul at all.

My Last FREE Groceries At Krogers

Free groceries you say? Yes this is the last bit of money I have on my three $500 Kroger cards that I won. Originally I figured it would last three months. Instead it lasted until October 12, 2008. As you might remember I had to try to keep this trip under $85. Was I going to make it? What did I buy and how much did I save?

Admittedly at first I felt like I'd messed up. The cash register came up with the figure $113.34. I was a bit nervous but I knew I had some FREE coupons that would be coming off. The best deal of course was the FREE Edy's ice cream bars. FREE from another win and they would have been $3.39. Nothing is better than free.

Speaking of FREE, this week's AJC had an unexpected surprise in it. There were coupons for these new Pedigree dog treats that seemed to have Big Dog's name all over them. You could get one which is basically a vitamin treat or a hip and joint treat which is steak flavored. Since I normally get the two for one papers for $2.50 I had two coupons for these treats. That's great. They are normally $3.99 a piece. So another $7.98 came off my bill.

I bought the DiGiorno Pizza on sale for $5.49 with a coupon for $1 off which brought the price down to $4.49 and luckily they had the flavor Darryl likes which is the garlic bread crust with pepperoni. The other one was a plain cheese pizza.

Since we've been living over at the Cartersville house during the week we've been eating TV dinners. Stouffer's LC was on sale buy 5 get one free. This made the price six for $10 or $1.67 a piece. Lately every time I buy ten I get a coupon for $1.50 off my next purchase of ten. I bought 12 for $18.50 after coupon making them $1.57 per dinner.

Barb's Puffin Cereal was on sale today, buy one get one free. Look at all the things that make it great: 100% Natural, Good Source of Fiber, Multigrain, Low Fat, No Hydrogenated Oils or Trans-Fats, Dairy Free, No Cholesterol, No Artificial, Colors or Preservatives, and Kosher. I've been wanting to try it for awhile but at $4.50 a 12 ounce box it was too expensive to try. Now even at $2.25 a box I was a little leery. Miracle of miracles though I actually had two one dollar coupons. So instead of two for $4.50 I was able to buy two boxes for $2.50 about a dollar and a quarter a box. Now that's a no brainer. I hear they are good but we'll see. I had a hard time deciding between the peanut butter ones and the cinnamon. In the end I figured Darryl would eat the cinnamon. I had another coupon for buy ten get $1.00 off alpo canned dog food. Since they are normally 61 cents a piece it brings them down to 51 cents a piece. I also bought a 22 pound bag of Gravy Train Dog food. It was on sale for $7.59 and with a $1 coupon it was $6.59. Darryl needed bread, cheese and meat. Sara lee bread was on sale buy one get one free. They are really pushing it so a loaf of fancy bread was $1.40. I bought him some bologna on sale but with no coupon. I bought him some of the Butterball fried turkey slices on sale for $2.50 a pack and I had a dollar off making it $1.50 a pack. I hope he likes it.

When I got home I found the other butterball coupon. My one complaint is they tried to charge me $4.49 for my 12 packs of Pepsi. I didn't buy coke there because they had it "on sale" for 2 packs for $8. What were they thinking? Pepsi was on sale for 3 for $11. It didn't ring up as that I said something and they fixed it.

Now comes the important question is how much did I save? I used $29.65 worth of manufactured coupons. I received a .75 bonus coupon for one purchase that I don't know about. Then I received $29.10 in store coupons & Kroger plus savings. Did I make it under $85? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I paid $83.69. If I had bought all this without sales or coupons I would have paid $143.19. Heck just without the coupons I would have spent $113. As it was I saved 58% on my groceries.

Interesting, since I saw one woman brag about her goal to save at least 10% on her groceries. So that's the end of it. I did get an invitation to participate in a store survey to win one of five $500 gift cards. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Oh by the way I thought I only had $85 left. Guess I had a little more than that because it shows a card balance of $5.02 not bad.

I Scream For Ice Cream

Did someone say ice cream? Ok it's not like we didn't just have a bunch of ice cream at the house but Kroger had a sale on Edy's this week. It was on sale for $2.99 a carton. Shows how long it's been since I've actually bought ice cream because I was shocked to see it normally sells for $4.99. What's up with that?

I certainly appreciate the fact that Edy's has seen fit to give me a bunch of ice cream every year. That makes me pretty loyal to them as well as the fact that it tastes so very good. However, since I did have a coupon for $1 off I felt better about paying $1.99 for a carton of ice cream rather than $4.99 a carton. I bought two, the Take the Cake and the Loaded brownie. Yum.

Alpo was on sale for 60 cents instead of 61 cents big deal right? Well I did have another coupon for $1 off ten making them 50 cents a can. I kind of get that rolling back the prices feeling when I buy it for that price. Again I know some people buy the even cheaper dog food but my dogs are old and I saw first hand how bad their health can deteriorate with the wrong pet food. I also bought a bag of their dog food which is normally $9.99 but I bought it for $7.99 after the coupon.

Lean Cuisine was on sale but this time for $1.97 a box. Not as good as in the past. I had a coupon for $1 off four so it brought the price down to $1.72. I will be glad when I'm back at my new house and I can actually cook. I hate living off microwave dinners. It's been good for my waist line though. This is why I can actually eat the ice cream. Lean Cuisine has this really great meal which is ravioli with squash inside. Very tasty. Out of pocket? $54.98. Manufacturer's coupons $8. Store coupons & Kroger savings $21.76. It would have been $84.74 but I saved 35% of my bill. Awesome!

What A Deal On Cereal

Kroger had a deal on cereal. Instead of its own brand normally costs $1.89 it was on sale for $1.67. So you got six for $10. The reward was at checkout they automatically took off an additional $4 making the cereal six for $6 or $1 a box. We bought a lot of Darryl's favorites. None of the ones I would eat were on sale. I know I shouldn't be so darn picky.

Ball Park Franks (You know the ones that plump when you cook 'em) were on sale for 99 cents a pack. I had a coupon for $1. off two making them 50 cents a pack. Since I had two coupons I bought four packs. They are great for cook outs or Darryl's lunch.

Glade aerosol was still on sale for $1 and I still had buy one get one free coupons adding to my collection of 50 cent glade air fresheners. Airwick was also on sale ten for $10 and with a buy one get one free coupon I bought two more 50 cent air fresheners. I thought I'd done well after I totaled out at $64.99. After presenting $12.75 in coupons my out of pocket was only $52.24. Factor in the sales and the $4 off instant coupon and I saved an additional $24.23 bringing the grand total up to $89.22. Meaning I saved about 59% on my groceries this week.

I am still using that Kroger card I won and the balance is now $143.69. Is that great or what?

The Accident

October 17, 2008 was a cool and dreary day. Not a pack on the sweaters and bundle up day but surely a day for a jacket day. To top it off there was a slight drizzle which only added to the miserable index of the day.

Big dog (yes that's his name) wakes me up every morning between 4:30 – 5:30 am. Sleep is still clouding my head as I silently slip out of bed so I don't wake my husband.

"Yuck" I said as I took the dogs out. Of course the dogs don't like the weather either. They look back at me silently wondering why I wasn't running after them with an umbrella over their heads.

Once back in the house I did all my usual morning rituals and duties. Feed and water the dogs. Feed myself. Go up to the loft and enter my sweeps. I have a crazy little ritual about what sweeps I enter each morning. I begin with the daily sweeps that will be entering on a particular day. I then enter the sweeps ending in the next two days. Whil not quite OCD in the manner in which I enter I do have a certain belief that somehow entering the sweeps in that particular manner will make me more likely to win.

Six o'clock means it's time to go down stairs and try to rouse Darryl from bed. "Darryl honey," I say as I grab my clothes in the near dark room. "Darryl wake up. Come on honey it's time to get up." It's a well choreographed dance we have. I know his first sentence will always be "I'm so tired." This sentence is usually followed up with "I just can't ever seem to get enough sleep." Sometimes though he'll throw in "I need to start going to bed earlier." This of course is only tossed out for effect and never actually an action that he plans to begin any time soon.

The sky is a coal grey outside and thin rivulets of rain run down our bedroom window. Were we only in St. Lucia the week before?

"Come on honey. Get up. I have to go to work and I get stand here all morning trying to get you up." Sometimes the bargaining process goes on. "You know Cathy it would help me get up if you could just rub my back a little." Sometimes he throws the cover aside says little except "Do I have any clean clothes?' Of course he does. He knows that he does but the words automatically tumble from his mouth.

This morning he gets up, walks past me, brushes my cheek with his lips and says "So are you and Kim driving together today?"

Questions like this sometimes get to me because I know I've already told him who is driving the next day because he always asks who drove when he gets home. He always asks who's driving the next day. He always asksand at times even appears to process the answer only to wind up asking the question again the next day.

Since the dogs have already eaten 45 minutes earlier they need to go back outside to do their business. So it's back outside I go. The drizzle turns into a fine mist that makes the streetlights halo. The dogs spend their time carefully seeking out the perfect location to deposit their droppings which they seem to deliberate as though they were making decisions that could actually impact the world.

It's spirit day, aka to those who have real jobs, casual Friday. This means I can wear jeans as long as I'm sporting a RHS t-shirt or even a sweatshirt. No problem. It's a price I'm willing to pay. I kiss Darryl good bye and walk out to my car.

My car is a 2002 Huyndai Elantra. I love that car. It's the first new car I've ever owned. Darryl bought it for me the year we got married. It is not show room perfect but every ding tells a story.

My roof had some hail damage from the day Darryl and I got caught up in a tornado. The hail had battered the car as we sat in the parking lot of a McDonald's in Cartersville. The wind was blowing and I was frightened. I wasn't sobbing but trust me I wanted to.

The front bumper has the now infamous "Cuban Dent". It got its name from a close encounter of the bicycle kind.

I had won a trip to Miami but it didn't include transportation. We wound up driving my car down there. One night after eating at a restaurant in South Beach we stopped at a red light. A man riding his bicycle began going through the cross walk. His bike swerved because a car came a little close and "POW" right into our front bumper came the man's head and his bike.

I screamed. "OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! Is he dead? Is he dead? It had happened so quickly we couldn't even tell you what the car looked like. Darryl got out of the car because the guy had hit the passenger side where I was sitting. I was afraid to look, fearful that he was dead.

Darryl was almost half-way to him and the bicyclist popped up grabbing his bicycle. "I'm fine. I'm OK!" he says. We ask if we can call a cop. "No no." He insists. "I'm Cuban. I'm a citizen. I'm fine." I try to say look let us get you some help. He clings to his bicycle and gets on it. "No. Look I'm fine. I'm going now. I'm fine. See I can ride. I'm fine." He takes off just like that. Just bizarre. It really spooked me. It left a dent in that side of the car the size and shape of his helmet.

Of course we can't forget my windshield. I was riding to work one day behind a dump truck and pow the rock came straight at my window. At first it was shaped like a small star staying pretty much the size of a nickel. It stayed that way for about two years. Then one hot morning I went out to drive and I noticed a line about the size of a stick of gum coming off one of the rays of the star. The next day it was worse. Before it was over the crack took up almost a quarter of the passenger side of the windshield. I always imagined that one day I would be driving and the window would cave in on me.

A year or so ago someone had rammed into the back of my car leaving only a scratch and causing me to go on a high speed pursuit trying to get her license plate number. She originally looked like she was going to pull over when I did and then she took off. The more I chased the more upset I got. The damage wasn't really that much and we never reported it to our insurance company.

The car, like me was showing its age. The driver side window couldn't be lowered. If it was you couldn't always guarantee that it could be raised. I stopped using that window. Bye-bye drive thru. The air conditioner/heater only threw out air if the dial was on high. Anything beneath that wouldn't allow the fan to operate. So the car was either hot or cold and you had to flick it on and off in accordance to how it felt at any particular point in time.

My plan was to hold on to the car for ten years. At that point I would replace it with a car that I want. Since I could say I finally owned a new car I would be OK with a second hand car and even had dreams of the features I wanted on a new car. Still for all that was wrong with the car, I loved it and it held many memories for me.

As always when I'm not driving with Kim I was listening to an audio book. This time it was "The Black Swan". Since this book involves statistics and mathematical theories I really have to pay attention to the darn thing. Perhaps not the best driving around book but it is still very interesting.

The sun was hidden behind the grey rain clouds. At times the weather seemed on the verge of rain and other times the mist or drizzle seemed to be ready to stop at any moment.

I approached the dreaded left turn in front of the school. Just last week I told Kim that this intersection is an accident waiting to happen. There is a light and for about a minute or so it has a left turn only. Then it turns yellow for about a half a minute then red. The red stays for a second or two and then turns green for both sides of the four lanes. So you have to negotiate a turn across the road going the other way. Not always easy because if anyone is in the opposite turn lane you can't always see the oncoming traffic. I hate that turn. I would do almost anything to avoid it if I could.

The left turn light was on and a few of the cars ahead of me were able to make it. The car directly ahead of me made a mad dash to make the yellow. It turned red and I stopped. Not in the intersection. Not in the middle of the road but front end scarcely over the yellow line. For me this is the worst position to be in. I am now in the position to hold everyone up. People will be upset. I'm one of those crazy old ladies who tries to plan her routes to make only right turns when possible.

I look up at the light and then I stare at the car in the opposite turn lane. It's a big van and I won't be able to see over it. Just as I'm trying to formulate the thought about staying until the van leaves when the light turns green and I can see traffic I hear the impact almost second after I feel the impact. Maybe it's just my head being a jumble but it felt that way. I turned to see a blue pick-up truck.

I can't just stay here and block traffic. I'm able to make it across and into the school parking lot. The truck pulls up behind me. It is a parent and thankfully not a student. The parent has a student with him and I don't know the kid. I walk over to the car to get his insurance information. I just want to get the information, park, and get to class. As I walk up car I glance at my rear bumper which is now busted up completely.

I try to keep the tears from flowing because I'm upset. I walk up to the window and say, "I'm going to need you insurance information. You hit my car but your vehicle looks OK." The parent glares at me and closes his window. WHAT?

I walk to the back of the truck to get his license number. It is at that same moment I realize I don't have my license. When we went to St. Lucia I had kept my license and passport with me just in case we had problems getting in or out of the country. My license was still with my passport in my other purse. Great I thought. Just great.

Some of the teachers begin to slow down as they are driving by. "Get Trixie!" I say. Trixie, Office Morgan, is our school's police officer. I think she's great. I have taught one of her son's and also her oldest son's girlfriend. As scared and nervous as I was all I wanted was someone I knew to be there and help me through this. I felt scared, upset, and actually physically ill. I felt like throwing up and passing out. I was trying so hard not to just start sobbing. Turns out Trixie wasn't there so out comes the second string.

Our Assistant Principal comes out. "Are you OK?" he asks. I answer that I think I'm OK but I just want to get his insurance and get inside. The AP walks over to the other driver's car. He has a walkie talkie and a big ID badge that identifies him as the Assistant Principal. The parent leaves the window closed and ignores him. AP comes back and tells me "I think the driver doesn't speak any English."

After a couple of minutes the student gets out of the truck and looks at me. "I hope that you two can work things out." He says. "Look honey it's going to be OK. You just have a good day OK." In the meantime I leaned against the car feeling sick. I don't want to puke and so now I'm concentrating on not puking or crying.

Finally the cops come. I'm still standing with AP who is telling me it's going to be OK and how grateful we should be that no one was really hurt too badly. The cop speaks to the driver who tells the cop he's afraid to get out of the car because he's afraid I might hurt him. The cop looks at me. I'm all of five foot five and weigh 120 pounds. I'm leaning against my car trying to keep my breakfast down and tears are starting to slip past my eye lids. No one is restraining me. I'm standing over at my car speaking to AP.

AP comes over to the cops and says "She's OK. She's a little upset and feeling kind of sick but we've been over here talking and I don't feel there is going to be a problem."

The other driver is speaking really loudly. First he tells the cop that I could have made the light. The cop said, "Look it's pretty clear cut. You slammed into her so you were following too close." The man jabbed his finger in the air my way. "I didn't even see that she stopped. I was on my cell phone." (I suppose that was my fault. I should have launched a flare so he would know.) Still I stand there wondering what I was going to say when they asked for my license. "Well you see officer; I was out of the country last week so my license is with my passport which is in my other purse." I wondered if he was going to arrest me for driving without it.

My attention was drawn back to the conversation taking place at the other car as the officer wrote the ticket. "Well you know I tried to stop but the pavement is wet so it makes it kind of difficult to stop on a dime."

AP comes back over to tell me that the cops were writing him the ticket and he would stand out there with me to keep me company. He asks again how I'm doing. My head is hurting, not pounding, not yet because that happens later that day. The cop then comes over and asks for my license and I tell him what the situation was. He had to look me up. You could tell this didn't please him too much. His unit wasn't working well. I asked if I could call my husband and have him bring it. I told him I felt sick and wanted to throw up. He told me fine. I ran into school and got on the phone. You see my cell phone was in my other purse too. When Darryl answered I just sobbed, long and loud. I just couldn't stop.

"Please come. Please come. I need you. Please Darryl. Please come." By the time Darryl gets there I have my ticket in hand and a car that wasn't driveable. School let me sign out. We took our car to a repair store to get an estimate. The trunk is pushed up in a way that won't really close. The right tail light is hanging by a wire. The right wheel panel is destroyed. The store said it would talk almost $5,000 to fix the car.

In the meantime, my head ache is getting worse and I'm starting to get numbness in my right hand. We call my doctor to discover that if you are involved in an accident your doctor can decide not to take your health insurance. What's up with that? I had to pay for urgent care out of my own pocket. They told me that his insurance will reimburse me. The doctor took a bunch of x-rays and now wants me to get an MRI. Gee like I can stroke a check for that out of my own pocket.

Oh the car? Well of course they are jerking me over the car. They paid for the rental car until Monday October 27th. They are giving me less than $3,000 for my car. Great. How in the world am I supposed to get a car for under $3,000 that works? How does that make me whole?

So here I sit a week later. Darryl and I bought a car last night. It is a Sebring. JXI convertible. We bought it for about $4,000. It has 87,000 miles on it. My old car had 113,000 miles on it. This car has a CD player and a tape player. Now most people wouldn't care about the tape player but heck that means more options as far as audio books. It also has this feature that tells me the temperature outside and which direction I'm headed in. Darryl says it's a trip computer. I can also program my garage door opener into another system in the car. Pretty cool.

How am I feeling? Well I've had a head ache all week. It's the kind that makes your thoughts cloudy. I'm still getting that pins and needles feeling in my hand. I still have to get my MRI.

Do I wish this never happened? Absolutely! I miss my car, Cuban dent and all. Am I excited about the new car? Yes. As a matter of fact, when Darryl and I got married in Vegas we rented a Sebring convertible. So there is a bit of a link to that time for me.

I'll let you know what happens when I know.